Sunday, April 27, 2014

The skies of L.A. are never empty, especially as we head into the the un up to Summer blockbuster season when big budget sci-fi and fantasy movies try to grab your attention at the same time as new comedy offerings. Here's the pick of this month's movie, theme park and music billboards gracing the city skyline in April 2014.

Movie billboards

First up is this wickedly brilliant super-sized billboard for Disney's live-action Maleficent, which stars Angelina Jolie. I'm just hoping that this perfect bit of casting translates into a spellbinding original story of the Disney villain, and we're not just going to be served up a CGI spectacle without any plot.

Last month I shared this billboard for The Amazing Spider-man 2 in the daytime, but what I didn't realise is that at night this special electroluminescent billboard transforms to reveal the villain Electro in the skies of New York facing our friendly neighborhood web-slinger.

Next up is this teaser for the fourth Transformers movie, with this rather ominous threat looming behind a robotic Transformer. They needed to do something different with the marketing for this fourth installment, but surely there'll be some Dinobot ads to follow as they are the big pull for the Age of Extinction.The Other Woman comedy, about a cheating husband and boyfriend whose wife and girlfriends want to get revenge on him, opened well this weekend faced with no other real box office competition, but this bland billboard doesn't really tell you what the film's about, but instead focuses on the female cast.

More comedy this Summer comes in the form of Neighbors, about Zac Efron's Fraternity house that moves in next door to Seth Rogen's family who have a newborn baby.

Meanwhile Melissa McCarthy continues to milk the success of her scene-stealing role in Bridesmaids with a roadtrip comedy this Summer, Tammy, in which she stars with Susan Sarandon as her hard-drinking grandmother.

Kevin Costner was back in cinemas this month with his American football-themed movie, Draft Day.

Plus Jon Hamm is trying to branch out from his Mad Men role as the drama comes to an end, in Disney's new sports biopic, Million Dollar Arm, about a talent scout who goes to India to recruit baseball pitchers from a nation of cricket players.

And just when you thought awards season was over, the MTV Movie Awards took place this month to honour some of the big screen's more popular flicks.

Theme park billboards

This month Despicable Me was bursting beyond the big screen to have its very own Minion Mayhem simulatorride at Universal Studios Hollywood.

And it was also time to flashback to Medieval Times with another special extension billboard, this one to enjoy the annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Southern California.

Music and radio billboards

This month in music Eminem and Rihanna were mashing up in a big and bold way along L.A.'s infamous Sunset Strip for their forthcoming Monster Tour.

Plus Justin Timberlake was back in the city skies to promote the L.A. leg of his 20/20 Experience world tour.

And there's yet another awards show on the way this May, the iHeart Radio 2014 Music Awards.

And finally, even though this radio station may have differing views to mine on a vast majority of topics, I did like this simple billboard creative which feeds on the public's fears about the recent NSA surveillance controversy.

As you can see there's been a wealth of ad creatives to catch your eye this month, be sure to stick around in the days to come for even more TV and lifestyle billboards filling the skies of Los Angeles in April 2014...